Monarchy vs. Republic

[lockstep]

Arrian, I checked your 1275AD save. Awesome game - I was especially impressed with the city of Beijing producing 26 shields in the middle age!

Okay, now for some 'builder mode' stats:

• You have 51 cities, of which 19 are level 1, 32 are level 2 and (naturally before Sanitation) 0 are level 3. For Monarchy, this results in 166 free units (19*2 + 32*4).
• You have 142 units (2.8 per city) and therefore don't pay any support. 33 units (0.7 per city) are Offensive Land, 63 (1.2 per city) are Defensive Land, 16 (0.3 per city) are Other Military (BTW, this includes leaders ), 30 (0.6 per city) are Settlers/Workers.
• You have also captured 44 Workers (0.9 per city). As they are working at half speed, this is equivalent to 22 built workers, and I'd be interested in how many additional workers you had built without these 'prisoners of war'.

I also took a look at your 'newjapan' save, and the figures and ratios are quite similar.

For 'amassed units' stats, I'd like to take a look at an 'Ultimate Power' game save from about 1AD - shortly before you unleashed your Horsemen/Swordsmen hordes on India.

BTW, does anyone besides me think that 8 free units per metropolis (standard setting for Monarchy/Communism) is somewhat unbalancing? Wouldn't 6 free units be more appropriate?

[Arrian]

lockstep,

I think you may be right about the unit support for metropoli... 6 would probably be better.

Unfortunately, I only have saves for 3450BC, 420AD, 800AD, 940AD, 1275AD, 1465AD, and 1685AD. I got hit by "one more turn" syndrome and failed to save the game between 3450BC and 420AD.

I may, however, be able to find a save of the beginning of one of my horse rushes from a different game. I'll have a look tonight.

I also have a newer Chinese game that may actually have been more "powerful" than the UP game, but I didn't do my standard military buildup. I did end up with comparable numbers of troops, but the ratios will be off because of the incredible boost I got from buying workers from the AI. During my "early war" stage, most of the AI's have 5 cities, and I'm on 11. I do have a save from then, though, and it may be what you're looking for.

-Arrian

[lockstep]

One thing that struck me as odd was your low ratio of defenders per city (1.2). I can only guess that you feel your 'home continent' is finally save from being invaded by whatever AI is left, and that your defenders-per-city ratio was higher when your empire was smaller.

About the captured workers ... do they replace any workers you would have built otherwise?

[Arrian]

lockstep,

Actually, I didn't really need as many defenders as I had. Yes, my homeland was safe from invasion. The coastal cities could have kept their defenders, with the inland ones giving up theirs. Keep in mind that some of my defenders were in France, protecting my attack troops and garrisoning Paris. The real ratio of defenders to cities is more like 1 to 1. My attack forces were just coming back up to strength in 1275... they had been severely weakened by the intial attack on France (Riders vs. Mustkeers... ack!).

Hmm, extra workers.. yes, I probably would have built extras (and did, during the RR binge) had I not had the slaves. Dunno how many, because I don't really calculate out "I need X number of workers." Then again, I had those slaves because I conquered my neigbors. Without that conquest, I would have had a much smaller empire, with less need for workers.

-Arrian

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Arrian
Hmm, extra workers.. yes, I probably would have built extras (and did, during the RR binge) had I not had the slaves.

How about adding 2 foreign workers at a time to a city and building 1 worker in the city? 10 shields for 1 pop point doesn't sound too bad to me, and with the numbers of your 1275AD save you still wouldn't pay support for the additional units.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by lockstep

How about adding 2 foreign workers at a time to a city and building 1 worker in the city? 10 shields for 1 pop point doesn't sound too bad to me, and with the numbers of your 1275AD save you still wouldn't pay support for the additional units.

Heh, never occurred to me. This was the first game where I used Monarchy extensively, so I was still thinking "slaves are good, they're free!" Not that it really mattered, though. I never really felt a lack of workers.

-Arrian

[Kindbud]

How do you capture a worker?

I was reading this interesting thread and was struck that I had never captured another civ's worker (or any other unit FTM). How is it done in Civ III? In Civ II you needed to bribe but that doesn't exsist here.

Thanks

[dawidge]

You can buy them, if they have workers *in* their capital, but usually you capture them by attacking them (They surrender immediately to your troops as you occupy the square) or taking a city that has them (again, they immediately become yours), or by razing a city when you take it (excess population is converted to workers).